There's a paper crafting process that involves taking a 3D model, unwrapping the mesh (think flattening an orange peel), printing the mesh, and assembling it (usually with paper). It's known as Pepakura. This is my first attempt at Pepakura. I'm making Samus Aran's helmet.
I quickly learned that using a hot glue gun was not the best option. It was messy and I occasionally burned myself in the process. It was difficult to keep the edges clean and precise. I ended up with an irksome gap where I tried to combine two halves of the helmet.
The perfectionist in me could not let myself continue so I decided to start over again. I had better luck using wood glue. The edges fit better and I have better control on the glue application. Another obstacle I came across was that I was grabbing pieces and gluing them together without any thought on which part I wanted to assemble next. Once again, I ended up with two halves that I needed to combine. Some parts of the seam that I needed to join were right in the middle of detailed sections.
I scrapped the top part and kept the sections small, to focus on the details. I used masking tape to get the overall form and was able to still adjust and re-adjust as needed. The last part that I ended up gluing was the very top, where all the sections met. There was still a little bit of a gap, but I feel confident that the fiberglass and bondo will fill it in.
In the end, I couldn't be happier. The next part of Pepakura is to harden the helmet. I get to play with fiberglass and bondo, neither of which I have ever worked with. I'll probably wait until I have a better space to work. Until then, I have the rest of the suit to work on.
